I grew up on a mid-Missouri subsistence farm with barely literate parents. Most of our food came from the land, and we butchered both wild hunted animals and farm animals on a daily basis. I was lucky enough to get a degree from one of the best journalism schools in the country, left at 18, and became an international journalist in Japan, across Asia and in England for more than a decade. My focus was on the under-privileged, giving people a voice who had no voice.

I gave it all up to find my OWN voice when I was in my 30s, and became a novelist and visual artist. A recent move to rural Oregon has meant I'm near farm animals again for the first time since I was a child. Like any visual artist, I painted my surroundings, including the goats and chickens and such. It was when I was leaning over the fence into my neighbor's yard feeling up a goats face to get its musculature down so I could paint him, that I had an idea. Why not partner with a farm animal sanctuary, get to know the animals as individuals, paint their portraits, tell their stories (as a writer, storytelling is so important to me) have an art show, and give some of the proceeds back to the sanctuaries? Wouldn't that bring my life full circle? I could almost be an animal journalist, giving animals a voice where they had no voice.

In the process of going to the sanctuaries, I've gone from vegatarianism to veganism.